National Review has a short article by Kevin D. Williamson in this week’s issue about the sad state of occupational-licensing laws; as an example, it uses the case of Adam Sweet, a PSU student whose moving company was shut down by the state because he didn’t have a “Oregon Intrastate Certificate to Transport Household Goods or Passengers.” I wrote about Sweet’s case here and more recently here.

Sorry, the NR article is behind a subscription wall, so I can’t link to it, but I do have a handy-dandy print copy. Here’s some of the text:

Adam Sweet is an Oregon college student who organized some friends into a moving business with a specialty in medical clinics. Alan Merrifield is a Californian who ran a pest-control business free of chemicals and poisons. Both were shut down by occupational-licensing laws that largely serve to protect entrenched business interests while doing little or nothing to protect the public.

Licensure laws make it difficult to start a business or pursue one part time. If you turn a buck from your knack for planting rosebushes or arranging their flowers, you could find yourself fined and jailed for practicing unlicensed landscape architecture or outlaw floristry. […]

In the cases of Sweet and Merrifield, challenges from the Pacific Legal Foundation forced authorities to admit what everybody knows: These laws exist mostly to protect politically connected businesses.

The city of Eugene has it’s own ignominious history with occupational-licensing laws. For example, back in the day it tried to fine David “Frog” Miller, who sells self-published jokebooks on the sidewalk, because he didn’t have a street vendor license. Frog claimed the city was violating his First Amendment rights and took it to court – all the way to the Oregon Supreme Court. And he won.

In the process, the city of Eugene spent thousands of dollars in legal costs trying to enforce a $25 ticket. That, for the record, is the funniest joke Frog has ever come up with. Here’s hoping Sweet’s case goes just as well.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 9th, 2009 at 17:31 by CJ Ciaramella and is filed under Business, City, Civil Liberties.
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